John,

My notes give the same result as the official document:

smi = Sami languages (other) [changed from "Sami languages"]
sme = Northern Sami [new entry]
se = Northern Sami [corrected from "Sami"]

Any material that is already encoded according to 639-2:1998 will have to be
changed by splitting "smi" into "smi" and "sme". It is correct that the
majority of the items that use "the old smi" will need to be changed to "the
new sme", and a smaller number of items will keep "the new smi". However, in
the large picture we are talking about very few records, and I would think
that the errors will be smaller this way. Making the oposite change would
result in non-Northern Sami records being erroneously encoded as Northern
Sami. This is more unfortunate than encoding Northern Sami records as Sami
languages (other), I would think.

Best regards,
Håvard

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Håvard Hjulstad mailto:[log in to unmask]
  Rådet for teknisk terminologi
  (Norwegian Council for Technical Terminology)
  Postboks 41 Blindern
  NO-0313 Oslo, Norway
  (besøksadresse/visiting address: Forskningsveien 3 B)
  tel: +47-23198040 faks: +47-23198041
  http://www.rtt.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Clews [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2000 11:19 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Resolutions (Sami codes)
>
> Dear Rebecca
>
> I hope that you and others - particularly Haavard Hjulstad - on the
> ISO 639 JAC will be able to help me with this one. I have just taken
> a quick look at the resolutions in detail, and the following stands
> out to me:
>
> You wrote:
>
> > Attached to this message is a file containing the resolutions from
> > our ISO 639 JAC meeting on 17-18 Feb. 2000...
>
> 4.3.13.1 and 4.3.13.2 state:
>
> > 13. Sami Languages/Northern Sami
> >
> > 1. Alpha-3 codes: change the definition of smi to Sami (other) and
> > add sme for Northern Sami
> >
> > 2. Alpha-2 codes: change se (already in ISO 639-1) to be Northern
> > Sami : Approved without the accent on Sami.
>
> It appears that there is a rationale for doing exactly the same for
> both existing codes (see the rationale below, which I quote from
> Haavard Hjulstad) but not for doing one thing for ISO 639-1, and the
> opposite for ISO 639-2.
>
> In my own meeting notes, I have exactly the opposite listed,
> particularly for ISO 639-2: if my record is wrong, please correct me,
> but if it stands as it is,
> the existing code in ISO 639-1 will represent _only_ Northern Sami, and
> the existing code in ISO 639-2 will represent _everything_except_
> Northern Sami.
>
> My meeting notes say:
>
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > Request Language ISO 639-1 ISO 639-2
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > se & smi Northern Sami Name change * Name change *
> > ?? & sme Sami (other) New code New code
> >
> > * Previously used (in LC) for "Lapp", and previously (in ISO 639 and
> > ISO 639-2) for "Sami languages."
> >
> > * Rationale: between 50% and 90% of all Sami publications are for
> > Northern Sami. The previous situation was ambiguous, and the
> > proposed name change for the existing codes was the solution which
> > caused least need for changing earlier code allocations.
>
> I look forward to clarification on this
>
> Best regards
>
> John Clews
>
> --
> John Clews, SESAME Computer Projects, 8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG
> tel: 0171 412 7826 (day); 0171 272 8397 (evening); 01423 888 432 (w/e)
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> Committee Chair of ISO/TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages;
> Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC22/WG20: Internationalization;
> Committee Member of CEN/TC304: Information and Communications
> Technologies: European Localization Requirements
> Committee Member of the Foundation for Endangered Languages;
> Committee Member of ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC2: Coded Character Sets